Gareth Southgate

[Little Wolf]

Shearer has been the best england striker i have seen cannot believe anyody slagging him off

[dickos1]

There’s zero buzz this time. Normally they’d be loads now it’s knockouts and we know our side of the draw but it’s just not there.

Everyone I speak to just assumes we’ll go out to the 1st decent team we play. Normally we go the other way but I can’t see anyone singing “it’s coming home” the way we are playing.

Atmosphere out in Germany is great, folk back home take too much notice of the negative media.
People like Neville, shearer, Lineker who failed massively year in year out for England and then they sit there slagging this team off, a team that’s done far better than any of them could muster up

What utter rubbish. Lineker and Shearer were both prolific scorers for England, with practically 1 in 2 ratios.

Lineker even won the Golden Boots award with the most goals at the 1986 World Cup.

Neither have done as well as Kane in an England shirt!

[dickos1]

Shearer has been the best england striker i have seen cannot believe anyody slagging him off

Slagging off his shit punditry and the poor England teams he failed with.

[Little Wolf]

If i played a 4-4-2 i would pick shearer and owen, kane would not get a look in

[dickos1]

If i played a 4-4-2 i would pick shearer and owen, kane would not get a look in

Well done good for you.

[Little Wolf]

Kane is 30 years old has been a great striker but now needs replacing next world cup he will be 32 and to old we need a replacement, if we cannot play to his strengths he needs replacing now, give watkins or tony a chance

[Little Wolf]

One of the main strengths of Southgate is that he’s bridged the gap with players. Lots of players have played better for the country than their club which is why he’s got so much previous criticism about players being picked when not in good form, because he knew they’d done well for him.
Maguire, Henderson, Phillips, Sterling, rashford, these are all players that were struggling for their clubs but he stuck with them and they were excellent for their country.

This tournament he’s moved away from that slightly and picked all the players in good club form, and at the moment it’s not clicking

This is utter garbage, picking players who are not match fit, not playing week in week out and thinking they are match fit, maguire was targeted in the last world cup by the french and giroud beat him for the winner, we have no left back who is match fit, just imagine luke shaw, not match fit coming against one of the best right wingers in europe, not a chance, no left midfield, you need a core group to keepyour shape, but as nobody has any idea what the shape is what is the point.

[StocksArmy]

Baffles me the stick that Kane gets. How many goals does the guy have to score to get the recognition he deserves? Our all time top scorer speaks for itself and that puts him above them all. He shows up every single tournament and even when he doesn’t play well and looks lethargic he scores. We are lucky to have him and it’s worrying to look at what’s behind him because as much as I rate Toney and Watkins they are not and never will be anywhere near the level Kane is.

[Little Wolf]

We are luckyto have had him but when is he past his best is the question

[StocksArmy]

Well he has scored 36 in 32 appearances for Bayern this season and scored 2 in 4 so far in the euros so not yet is the answer to that one.

[dickos1]

Kane is 30 years old has been a great striker but now needs replacing next world cup he will be 32 and to old we need a replacement, if we cannot play to his strengths he needs replacing now, give watkins or tony a chance

Utter nonsense!
Look at how many goals he’s scored this season, look how many goals he’s scored in recent major tournaments.

[Little Wolf]

Does anyone watch the bundesliga, where does kane play does he play on the shoulder of the last defender or does he drop deep to the half way line?

[dickos1]

He comes deep and gets the ball, as he did for Tottenham for years

[Colemans Left Hook]

Kane is 30 years old has been a great striker but now needs replacing next world cup he will be 32 and to old we need a replacement, if we cannot play to his strengths he needs replacing now, give watkins or tony a chance

Utter nonsense!
Look at how many goals he’s scored this season, look how many goals he’s scored in recent major tournaments.

in the first match of the competition Serbia we had a corner on the right and we got a close up of Harry and I saw him struggling for breath - as if he was knackered as he awaited the corner - i don't know which half it was.

[Little Wolf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNviYwk8Oc Just checked think not he plays right on the front line, high on the shoulder of the last man,utter gareth defensive garbage playing him that deep

And by the way take a bow harry fantastic finishing

[dickos1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNviYwk8Oc Just checked think not he plays right on the front line, high on the shoulder of the last man,utter gareth defensive garbage playing him that deep

And by the way take a bow harry fantastic finishing

If you don’t realise Kane has been playing deep for years and playing in the likes of son week after week then you’ve no idea what is is you’re watching.

[Little Wolf]

Have you not watched the video, can you not see how high he is playing 

[ChrisBx]

Kane's passing range is superb. I have absolutely no issue with him dropping deeper at times providing the wide players enter the space he vacates.

There's talk of us switching to a back 3/5 against Switzerland which may leave us shorter in the central midfield areas. If so, Kane dropping deeper will be even more important.

[dickos1]

Have you not watched the video, can you not see how high he is playing 

Come on, get a grip!
He’s a striker so yes of course he spends most of the time the furthest player up the pitch.
But the simple fact is, Kane throughout his whole career has come deep to get the ball and played people through. The issue isn’t him coming deep the issue is we don’t have runners going in behind when he comes deep.
Kane’s game this tournament is no different to its ever been, I can’t understand anyone suggesting it is

[IDM]

Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure I remember watching Lineker play in a World Cup semi final to lose only on penalties, having been top scorer the previous tournament in a team that was cheated out of it.  Shearer got to the semi final of the euros, again losing on pens. To the Germans both times.  I, and many of us on here, watched both semis.  Sure, some of the preceding games were crap, but not all - like the 4-1 vs Holland and the 3-0 vs Poland when we really needed a result.

Yes GS got us to a final, and has been around longer but the previous ones weren’t as bad respectively as you’re making out..

[dickos1]

This era has got us to at least the quarters in every tournament since Southgate took over.
Euro 96 we played well in one half of football against Holland the rest of it was pretty poor, italia 90 we were poor all the way through, best performance was in the semi which we lost.
Our record from 1990 to 2016 was pretty atrocious!
92 failed to get of group
94 did not qualify
96 semis
98 last 16
2000 failed to get out of group
2002 quarter finals
2004 quarter finals
2006 quarter finals
2008 did not qualify
2010 last 16
2012 quarter finals
2014 failed to get out of group
2016 last 16

Compare that to Southgate’s reign
2018 semi final
2020 final
2022 quarter final
2024 ?

So yes the record under the golden generation and even the one before with Lineker was terrible, it’s just a fact that the current national team is performing in tournaments much better than it has before on a consistent basis

[silent majority]

This era has got us to at least the quarters in every tournament since Southgate took over.
Euro 96 we played well in one half of football against Holland the rest of it was pretty poor, italia 90 we were poor all the way through, best performance was in the semi which we lost.
Our record from 1990 to 2016 was pretty atrocious!
92 failed to get of group
94 did not qualify
96 semis
98 last 16
2000 failed to get out of group
2002 quarter finals
2004 quarter finals
2006 quarter finals
2008 did not qualify
2010 last 16
2012 quarter finals
2014 failed to get out of group
2016 last 16

Compare that to Southgate’s reign
2018 semi final
2020 final
2022 quarter final
2024 ?

So yes the record under the golden generation and even the one before with Lineker was terrible, it’s just a fact that the current national team is performing in tournaments much better than it has before on a consistent basis

Whilst I sympathise with your position doing a wholesale comparison like that is near impossible.

Not only was the format different for a lot of those campaigns so was qualifying, and so was the number of teams in each competition. Not only that but its only in recent years that the Euro's have become a summer competition with qualifying during the playing season and the finals in the summer, it didn't use to be like that and most of the competition part took place during the playing season.

I remember the days when WC qualifying groups consisted of just 3 teams, and any failure at that time meant no qualification at all. Its got so much easier these days with umpteen chances to qualify!

[drfcsteve]

In addition to that Southgate has generally got very lucky with the opposition England have faced. This tournament possibly the easiest group and then easiest side of the draw.

Last World Cup we only had to beat Iran and Wales (couldn’t beat USA) and then beat Senegal.

World Cup in Russia we beat Panama and Tunisia (with a last minute goal) Columbia (on penalties) and Sweden.

Euros final maybe the exception as we had to get past Germany but otherwise it was Croatia, Czechs (couldn’t beat Scotland), Ukraine and Denmark.

In general, with the exception of Germany in the Euros, we’ve fallen short everytime we’ve faced a decent team - and even sometimes when we’ve come up against an average team.

[Goole Rover]

This era has got us to at least the quarters in every tournament since Southgate took over.
Euro 96 we played well in one half of football against Holland the rest of it was pretty poor, italia 90 we were poor all the way through, best performance was in the semi which we lost.
Our record from 1990 to 2016 was pretty atrocious!
92 failed to get of group
94 did not qualify
96 semis
98 last 16
2000 failed to get out of group
2002 quarter finals
2004 quarter finals
2006 quarter finals
2008 did not qualify
2010 last 16
2012 quarter finals
2014 failed to get out of group
2016 last 16

Compare that to Southgate’s reign
2018 semi final
2020 final
2022 quarter final
2024 ?

So yes the record under the golden generation and even the one before with Lineker was terrible, it’s just a fact that the current national team is performing in tournaments much better than it has before on a consistent basis

Keep going dickos old mate, it’s a good job some of these weren’t around in the early forties.

[scawsby steve]

It will all be put to the test on Saturday. Switzerland look a bloody good side.

If we can beat them, I'll start to believe. However, we'll need to play better than we have done up to now; and we all know that we can.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This era has got us to at least the quarters in every tournament since Southgate took over.
Euro 96 we played well in one half of football against Holland the rest of it was pretty poor, italia 90 we were poor all the way through, best performance was in the semi which we lost.
Our record from 1990 to 2016 was pretty atrocious!
92 failed to get of group
94 did not qualify
96 semis
98 last 16
2000 failed to get out of group
2002 quarter finals
2004 quarter finals
2006 quarter finals
2008 did not qualify
2010 last 16
2012 quarter finals
2014 failed to get out of group
2016 last 16

Compare that to Southgate’s reign
2018 semi final
2020 final
2022 quarter final
2024 ?

So yes the record under the golden generation and even the one before with Lineker was terrible, it’s just a fact that the current national team is performing in tournaments much better than it has before on a consistent basis

Whilst I sympathise with your position doing a wholesale comparison like that is near impossible.

Not only was the format different for a lot of those campaigns so was qualifying, and so was the number of teams in each competition. Not only that but its only in recent years that the Euro's have become a summer competition with qualifying during the playing season and the finals in the summer, it didn't use to be like that and most of the competition part took place during the playing season.

I remember the days when WC qualifying groups consisted of just 3 teams, and any failure at that time meant no qualification at all. Its got so much easier these days with umpteen chances to qualify!

The Euros have been run in more or less this format (Qualifying groups over 18 months, then a group and knockout finals tournament in the summer) since 1980. Hardly "recent".

[dickos1]

In addition to that Southgate has generally got very lucky with the opposition England have faced. This tournament possibly the easiest group and then easiest side of the draw.

Last World Cup we only had to beat Iran and Wales (couldn’t beat USA) and then beat Senegal.

World Cup in Russia we beat Panama and Tunisia (with a last minute goal) Columbia (on penalties) and Sweden.

Euros final maybe the exception as we had to get past Germany but otherwise it was Croatia, Czechs (couldn’t beat Scotland), Ukraine and Denmark.

In general, with the exception of Germany in the Euros, we’ve fallen short everytime we’ve faced a decent team - and even sometimes when we’ve come up against an average team.

That’s not correct either
We got knocked out by Iceland not long ago, italia 90 we faced Belgium and Cameroon both very poor international sides at the time.
The arguement we only do well because we’re playing rubbish teams is just an easy arguement for the people who can’t accept it when we do well under Southgate

[dickos1]

This era has got us to at least the quarters in every tournament since Southgate took over.
Euro 96 we played well in one half of football against Holland the rest of it was pretty poor, italia 90 we were poor all the way through, best performance was in the semi which we lost.
Our record from 1990 to 2016 was pretty atrocious!
92 failed to get of group
94 did not qualify
96 semis
98 last 16
2000 failed to get out of group
2002 quarter finals
2004 quarter finals
2006 quarter finals
2008 did not qualify
2010 last 16
2012 quarter finals
2014 failed to get out of group
2016 last 16

Compare that to Southgate’s reign
2018 semi final
2020 final
2022 quarter final
2024 ?

So yes the record under the golden generation and even the one before with Lineker was terrible, it’s just a fact that the current national team is performing in tournaments much better than it has before on a consistent basis

Whilst I sympathise with your position doing a wholesale comparison like that is near impossible.

Not only was the format different for a lot of those campaigns so was qualifying, and so was the number of teams in each competition. Not only that but its only in recent years that the Euro's have become a summer competition with qualifying during the playing season and the finals in the summer, it didn't use to be like that and most of the competition part took place during the playing season.

I remember the days when WC qualifying groups consisted of just 3 teams, and any failure at that time meant no qualification at all. Its got so much easier these days with umpteen chances to qualify!

I think for all those tournaments I mentioned they were played in the summer with qualification during the season.
Yes the completion was different it used to be in the euros that you were straight into the quarters which means some of those performances are even worse as they’ve lost in the first knock out game

[drfchound]

Something that hasn’t been mentioned (I don’t think it has anyway) is the quality of some other nations has improved so much.
I remember years ago that we used to beat teams by seven or eight goals but those countries now have exceptional coaching and are so well organised that massive wins are very rare.
Even teams like San Marino don’t get hammered every time they play.

[Filo]

Rumours abound that he’s going to go 3-5-2